We were up reasonably early this morning in order to live at 8:45, as we needed to get down to Chapel Down winery for our tour at 10:30am. Quite early for a winery tour, but it was the only one with spaces left and Peter really wanted to check out the winery! Chapel Down is the most prestigious winery in the UK and its best known. Despite a bit of traffic we made it down there at right on 10:30 and managed to run up the path and join the tour just as it was starting. 

The winery was looking lovely and autumnal, with all the vines covered in yellow leaves, alongside many surrounding trees. It was quite chilly and windy but thankfully not raining (as it had been forecast) as we made our way down through the vines and around the yards. Our tour guide told us about the history of Chapel Down and gave an outline of their viticultural practices. We were led into the pressing rooms to see the enormous industrial presses and given an explanation of the different pressing process for different grapes and how different parts of the juice are used to make different wines. Then it was outside to the huge tanks and an overview of the fermentation process. We finished the tour in the barrel room with an explanation of which wines are barrel aged, and how champagne is made and aged. It was a great in-depth tour and ended with a great in-depth tasting! We had perfect timing as well, with the rain starting just as we sat down in the tasting room. We tasted their Bacchus, rose and a few different sparkling wines (which is what they’re famous for), as well as a delicious chardonnay. On our way out through the shop we got a few bottles which will be nice to enjoy on a special occasion. 

Back in the car, it was too early to head to our accommodation in Battle so we headed off towards Rye. We found a car park quite easily on the edge of town and headed in to what turned out to be a gorgeous little village. There was a big ‘land gate’ on the eastern edge of town and after checking that out we headed to a little micropub we’d heard about. Unfortunately they could only seat us for 20 minutes due to being booked up but this was enough time for a half pint of beer and a pork pie! It was pouring outside but luckily when we had to move we were able to relocate into an undercover area out the front. Once someone started smoking there though, we decided it was time to head off. Thank goodness Peter had brought an umbrella and I had my raincoat, so we were able to have a good explore of the town. We found our way through wiggly cobblestone streets to ‘Mermaid Street’, where the 600-year-old Mermaid Inn is still in business (sadly it was full) and the rest of the street is lined by tilted half wooden houses. It was beautiful! We made our way down the street and then looped back along another cute Main Street lined with little shops until we arrived back at the land gate. Right by the gate was a hot chocolate shop so we stopped and got a delicious hot drink to take back to the car - with one more stop for Peter to buy a silly sign in a vintage store. 

At this point we were quite wet and sick of the rain so we drove the 30 minutes across the East Sussex countryside to Battle. After a few loops of the street we found a park right out the front and made our way into the most adorable little cottage! It’s a replica of a Norman cottage and has the low ceilings and wooden beams you’d expect of an English cottage, with wooden internal doors and a wooden kitchen. The stairs slope to the left as you climb to the top, giving you quite the experience of slipping towards the window as you enter the bedroom. We’d intended to play an escape game for Halloween but Peter wasn’t feeling 100% (he always feels a bit funny after night shifts) and we were waiting for a Boris Johnson press conference that was initially supposed to be at 4, but got pushed to 5, and then 6, and ultimately happened at about 6:30. You know it’s not going to be great news when they’re interrupting prime-time news and Halloween broadcasting, and unsurprisingly it was an announcement that the UK is going in to lockdown from Thursday until 2nd December. This was actually quite a relief for us - mainly because the government is finally doing something, but also because we can finish our holiday on Tuesday and head home before lockdown. We were really concerned that if they called it for Monday we’d have to just turn around and go home tomorrow, but luckily we get to enjoy our (almost certainly) last holiday for 2020. After the press conference we had a nice simple dinner of beef mince and veg with chunky potato chips, and then watched a couple of episodes of Dark before bed.